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  <title>Description of the Old English Handbook</title>
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     <div id="header"><h2 style="margin-right: 1.5em;">Description of the <span
style="font-style: italic;">OE Handbook</span> & indices</h2></div>
     <div id="text">
<TABLE border="1"><tr><td>          
<font face="arial" size="+1">
<a href="char4oeh.html">Table 1</a>: an index to the text in its long and short forms.<br/> 
<a href="char5oeh.html">Table 2</a>: canon finder; links chapter numbers to manuscripts; shows how the parts of the text are distributed in the manuscripts.<br/> 
<a href="char3oeh.html">Table 3</a>: describes the sources. </td></tr></TABLE>
<p>
       
       Following a guide to the text's <a href="txhdoeh.html#form">form and content</a>, you will find a list of <a href="txhdoeh.html#manuscripts">manuscripts</a>, a discussion of <a href="
       txhdoeh.html#date">date and sources</a>, and a <a href="txhdoeh.html#bib">bibliography</a>.       </p><br/>


       <h3 style="font-size: 20pt; color: #626C9B; font-weight: bold; position: relative; top: -1em; letter-spacing: .10em; width: 100%; border-bottom: double 3px #626C9B; "><a name="form">Form and Content</a></h3>

<P>


       The 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">Old English Handbook</span> 
       is the latest and most fully developed Anglo-Saxon handbook of penance. It is a more
complete guide for the confessor than any other vernacular penitential in England, although like them it does not appear to
have been
       put into final form by its compiler. It includes a detailed introduction to the confessional
encounter
       between priest and penitent, prayers, a list of sins and punishments (the "tariff" section that we often think of as all penitentials comprised), advice to the priest in
       adjusting penances, and information on how penances could be commuted or shortened.
The <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span> reduces the confessor's margin for error by reducing the number of tariffs
for him to
       choose among. By far the shortest of the three vernacular texts, it would therefore have been the easiest to consult. It starkly reverses the formal balance of the earliest texts, the 
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span> and the
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Canons of Theodore</span>: the only introductory material associated with the former was apparently added by the author of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> (this being the text known as the <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Introduction</span>), while the latter offers as prefatory material only a dialogue between the pope and his bishops. 
     </p>
     <p>The 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span> 
       contains only a fraction of the tariffs found in the other penitentials; unlike them it does
not seem to have been intended as a compendium of penitential
       decisions but instead as a compact guide for the confessor. Its tariffs are devoted chiefly
to murder, sexual offenses, and superstition. This narrowed scope makes the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span> 
       the most practical of the vernacular penitentials; it makes few assumptions about the
priest's knowledge 
       of his duties as confessor and in fact gives nearly as much attention to advising him as to
providing the tariffs themselves.
     </p>
     <p>
     The <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span>
     exists in two forms, one containing 4 books and the other 6 books. The longer form, evidently an enlargement of the shorter form and the version favored by all previous editors, does not stand on the most reassuring manuscript evidence. The second part, a prayer, follows part 1 only in one manuscript, MS N (Cotton Tiberius A.iii), which is not itself a penitential; part 2 is very awkwardly inserted--as an after thought, rather than by accident, it would seem--into part 3 in MS D (Corpus 201), which is the only other manuscript containing this material. The
     following list describes the character and function of each part; a plus/minus sign 
     <span style="color: blue;">&plusmn;</span> 
     indicates that the MS in question contains only part of this book or contains two versions
of it. Each part of the 
     <span style="font-weight: bold;">Handbook</span> 
     has a specific function, although parts 3 and 5 are similar and, as the manuscript evidence
shows, closely related:
     <ul style="list-style-type: none; padding-left:10px; font-size: 15px;">
       <li>
         <span style="color: red;">51 Part I</span> 
         Latin introduction. 4 MSS: B, C, D, N. In each of these
         manuscripts Part I is immediately followed by Part III.
       </li>
       <li>
         <span style="color: red;">52 Part II</span> 
         Prayer of confession for priest to teach to the penitent and
         direct the penitent to recite. 2 MSS: D, N; in MS D, the prayer is erroneously inserted
into Part
         III.
       </li>
       <li>
         <span style="color: red;">53 Part III</span> 
         The <foreign lang="lat">ordo confessionis</foreign>,
         which tells the priest how to receive the penitent. 6 MSS: B, C, D, N, Y, X
         <hi rend="blue">&plusmn;.</span>
       </li>
       <li>
         <span style="color: red;">54 Part IV</span> 
         The tariff penitential. 4 MSS: B, C, D, N
         <span style="color: blue;">&plusmn;</span> 
         (one paragraph only).
       </li>
       <li>
         <span style="color: red;">55 Part V </span> 
         Further directions for the priest. 6 MSS: B, C, D, N, X
         <span style="color: blue;">&plusmn;</span>
         (X contains two versions of 55.04.01; the first version is 
         marked X55.04.91-X55.09.91, where -91 marks it as a second version, and the second
as
         X55.04.01-X55.09.01; Y
         <span style="color: blue;">&plusmn;</span>.
       </li>
       <li>
         <span style="color: red;">56 Part VI</span> 
         Commutations of penance for the powerful. 2 MSS: D, Y.
       </li>
     </ul>
     </p>
     <p>
       In this edition the books are numbered 51 through 56. The four-book form contains
books 51, 53,
       54, 55; the six-book form contains books 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56. But the six-book form
never
       occurs without significant irregularities. Although the standard edition (Fowler 1965)
follows
       the first edition (Thorpe 1840) in presenting the work in six parts, this version is a
reconstruction 
       not attested in any manuscript. For details see the manuscript list and chapter index
below. Mone prints MS B, the four-book
       form: 51, 53 54, 55 (incomplete). Thorpe and Fowler print
       51-56, the six-book form, from all the MSS. (Two editors print brief excerpts only: Jost
prints
       55.02 from MS X and Raith prints 54 from MS C.) For arguments against accepting the
six-book
       form as the "original" 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">Handbook</span>, see Frantzen (1983A, 1983B).
     </p>        
       <br/>


       <h3 style="font-size: 20pt; color: #626C9B; font-weight: bold; position: relative; top: -1em; letter-spacing: .10em; width: 100%; border-bottom: double 3px #626C9B; "><a name="manuscripts">Manuscripts</a></h3>
        <p>
       There are six manuscripts of the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span> 
       (hereafter 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span>):
       <ul style="list-style-type: none; padding-left:10px; font-size: 15px;">
         <li>
           <span style="color: red;">B&nbsp;&nbsp; Brussels, Biblioth&egrave;que royale,
8558-63, s. xi&sup1;, southeastern (Ker 10; Gneuss 808);</span>
         </li>
         <li>
            <span style="color: red;">C&nbsp;&nbsp; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 265,
s. xi<sup>med</sup>, Worcester (Ker 53; Gneuss 73);</span>
         </li>
         <li>
            <span style="color: red;">D&nbsp;&nbsp; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 201,
s. xi<sup>med</sup>, Winchester (Ker 48B; Gneuss 66);</span>
         </li>
         <li>
            <span style="color: red;">N&nbsp;&nbsp; London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius
A.iii, s. xi<sup>med</sup>, Canterbury (Ker 186, art. g; Gneuss 363);</span>
         </li>
         <li>
            <span style="color: red;">X&nbsp;&nbsp; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 121, s.
XI&frac34;, Worcester (Ker 338; Gneuss 644);</span>
         </li>
         <li>
            <span style="color: red;">Y&nbsp;&nbsp; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc.
482, s. xi<sup>med</sup>, Worcester (Ker 343; Gneuss 656).</span>
         </li>
       </ul>
     </p> 
       <br/>



       <h3 style="font-size: 20pt; color: #626C9B; font-weight: bold; position: relative; top: -1em; letter-spacing: .10em; width: 100%; border-bottom: double 3px #626C9B; "><a name="date">Dates and Sources</a></h3>
        <P>
       The 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span> 
       is the latest of the Anglo-Saxon penitentials. Raith treats the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> 
       as an extract from the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">Old English Penitential</span>
       and outlines the contents, by manuscript, on pp. 73-74, showing that the source of
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span>, 
       book 4, is the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span>; he also prints sections from the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> 
       that parallel the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> 
       (pp. 76-80). Fowler's edition (1965) contains an extensive discussion of language and
argues that the text can be associated 
       with Wulfstan, an important early eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon author and
archbishop. Even without linguistic evidence, however, the
       textual affiliations make it clear that the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> 
       was the last of the Anglo-Saxon penitentials to take shape. Just as it depends in part on
the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span>, 
       the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> 
       depends in part on the
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span>.
     </p>
     <p>
       The specific debt of the fourth book of the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> 
       to the 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span>
       can be seen in this list:<br/>
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> 
       D54.01.01-04.01 corresponds to 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span>
       Y41.12.01;<br/>
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> 
       D54.05.01-24.01 corresponds to 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEP</span> 
       Y42.01.01-16.01<br/>
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> 
       D54.25.01-38.01 corresponds to 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEP</span> 
       Y44.01.02-14.01<br/>
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> 
       D54.40.01 corresponds loosely to 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEP</span> 
       Y42.01.04 and
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> 
       D54.41.01  corresponds loosely to 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span> 
       X07.03.01. The sources are as yet not known for 
       <span style="font-weight: bold;">OEH</span> D54.39.01 and D54.42.01. 
</p><p>
This <a href="char3oeh.html">table</a> shows the relationship of the sources of the<span
style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span> (the fifth book, the tariff section) to parts of
the <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span>).

        </p> 
       <br/>
       <h3 style="font-size: 20pt; color: #626C9B; font-weight: bold; position: relative; top: -1em; letter-spacing: .10em; width: 100%; border-bottom: double 3px #626C9B; ">Manuscript tables</h3>

         Two tables are available to give you an overview of how the 
      <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span> 
      is arranged in each manuscript.
       </p>


<a href="char4oeh.html">Table 1</a> is an index of the six books.
<p><a href="char5oeh.html">Table 2</a>, more detailed, is an index of these books by
manuscript. Note that MS D (Corpus 201) is the only complete version of the six-book version
and that MSS BC (Brussels 8558-63 and Corpus 265) both contain the four-book text.
</p>


     </div>
     <div id="header" style="border-top: double 3px lightyellow;"><h2 style="margin-right:
1.5em;"><a name="bib">Bibliography</a></h2></div>
     <div id="text">
      <p>
      <dir>
        Fowler, R. ed. "A Late OE Handbook for the Use of a Confessor." 
     <span style="font-weight: bold;">Anglia</span>
     83 (1965):1-34.
      </dir>
      <dir>
        Jost, Karl. 
     <span style="font-weight: bold;">Die "Institutes of Polity," Civil and Ecclesiastical," ein
Werk Erzbischof Wulfstans von York</span>. 
     Schweizer anglistische Arbeiten, XLVII. Berne, 1959. Pp. 170-72.
      </dir>
      <dir>
        Mone, F. J. ed. 
     <span style="font-weight: bold;">Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte der teutschen
Literatur und Sprache</span>. 
     1830. Pp. 529-47.
      </dir>
      <dir>
        Raith, J. ed. 
     <span style="font-weight: bold;">Die altenglische Version des Halitgar'schen Bussbuches
(sog. Poenitentiale Pseudo-Ecgberti)</span>. 
     Bibliothek der Angels&auml;chsischen Prosa 13. Hamburg, 1933. Repr. with new
introduction, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
     Buchgesselschaft, 1964. Pp. 76-80.
      </dir>
      <dir>
        Thorpe, Benjamin. ed., 
        <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ancient Laws and Institutes of England </span>. 
        2 vols. London, 1840, 2:260-89.
      </dir>
	 <dir>Patrick Wormald. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Legal Culture in the Early Medieval West: Law as Text and Experience</span>. London: Hambledon Press, 1999.</dir>

      <dir>
	 Patrick Wormald. <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century</span>. Oxford, 1999.</dir>
	 
      
      </p> 
     </div>     
   </div>
</td></tr></table>
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